Dorchester Conference guest an insult to Dr. King's memory

Today, April 4, we observe the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He was killed by a racist at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he went to demonstrate and speak in support of striking sanitation workers as part of his broader campaign in pursuit of equal civil rights for all people.

Today, the former motel is the home of the National Civil Rights Museum, and serves as a place for the humane and peaceful world seeking justice and equality for all.

And it is in painful juxtaposition to the events of one month ago, when the Oregon Republican Party held its annual Dorchester Conference here in Salem, and their featured speaker was Roger Stone, a man whose Twitter posts are so hateful, that he is banned from the platform.

A self-described “dirty trickster” who has allied himself with the alt-right, Mr. Stone saw fit to bring with him a contingent of Proud Boys to be his personal security detail. The Proud Boys are a right-wing, white-nationalist organization identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and are notorious locally for their thuggish behavior at street rallies in Portland.

To erase any doubt about Mr. Stone’s political and cultural affiliations, while in Salem, he had his picture taken with half a dozen Proud Boys enjoying a beer and throwing down white nationalist hand signals. That photo was then tweeted to Alex Jones, an alt-right radio personality and conspiracy theorist, who immediately re-tweeted it to his followers.

Fifty years ago a great man died in the midst of his struggle to bring freedom and equality to all Americans, and in the intervening years some progress was made toward that goal. But with the last presidential campaign and the example set by our current president, that progress is in jeopardy.

It speaks volumes that in these times and with the serious assaults being launched on the diversity and inclusiveness that should define democracy in a nation of immigrants, that the Oregon Republican Party, by inviting and celebrating a man such as Roger Stone, gives the appearance of endorsing and legitimizing his racist, sexist and divisive white-nationalist views.

We call upon the Oregon members of the GOP who care about fairness, who care about community, who remember that the principles of equality and justice are foundational to our nation, to stand up and speak up.

Voice your disgust to the organizers of the Dorchester Conference and your leaders; tell them there is no place for racism in your party. Members of the Oregon GOP who believe we cannot progress as a nation with hate as a core component have to stand up and say “stop.”

Otherwise, it leaves a huge question: What does the Republican Party of Oregon stand for?